CRIMINAL WINNER

LOCKE T. CLIFFORD, Clifford Clendenin & O’Hale LLP, Greensboro

I have been a member of Grassroots Productions since it started about 30 years ago. I have portrayed Uncle Sam at the Greensboro Fun Fourth Festival, which Grassroots sponsors. Uncle Sam also throws out the first pitch at NewBridge Bank Park for the Greensboro Grasshoppers, a professional baseball team (of which I am a 1% owner) in the Class A South Atlantic League.

Vita: Born July 27, 1942, in Cincinnati; bachelor’s and law degree from UNC Chapel Hill; wife, two children and three grandchildren. What he’d be if not a lawyer: I would like to put in 50 years as a criminal-defense lawyer, turn the practice over to my son and then become the state’s first criminal-law mediator.Memorable case: USA v. Pvt. Grounds — a murder case I successfully defended in Vietnam while I was in the Army in 1970. All the prosecutor had was my client’s confession and four eyewitnesses, but I had the forensic evidence that produced a not-guilty verdict. Passions: Picking and singing my left-handed banjo and dog-house bass, backpacking and fly-fishing. Favorite place: My man cave.Recent reading:The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. Don’t ask him to: Pledge you money over the phone, eat beets, drive to Greensboro from Charlotte or Raleigh at 5 p.m., listen to Rush Limbaugh or take a domestic case.